Research GIS and other maps that change the territory (page 351)

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WebLinks: Contexts for Exploring Visual and Verbal Texts

When you first think about geography, you might remember having to memorize all the states and their capitals in grade school. Geography, scientifically speaking, encompasses much more than one-dimensional maps of cities and states; it entails the study of the earth's surface and all the people on it. Geographers are constantly seeking new ways to organize their studies of the myriad items on the earth's surface. Given that the subject is so vast, it's no wonder that geographers spend a lot of time and energy searching for new ways to represent the earth's surface and how it changes—or might change—over time.

Geographic Information Systems is one way of representing the changes of the earth through various dimensions. Still, it is only one way of representing the earth. Can you think of others? See what you can learn about GIS through the links below, and consider how GIS differs from other ways of representing the earth's surface.

http://www.gis.com/whatisgis/index.html
GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems. It is a complex mapping system that combines computer-generated databases and satellite imagery to show how a landscape has changed over time. On this site, you can get more information about GIS and its applications.

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/giswww.html
This is a clearinghouse for information about GIS technology run by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

http://arcims.mathsciencecenter.info/
If you have a hard time understanding how GIS works, look at this site and take a tutorial or watch the PowerPoint presentation. There are some easy-to-work applications you can try out as well.

http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/gis_poster/
This is a very complete explanation of how GIS technology works; this site, run by the U.S. Geological Survey, shows how "overlays" in GIS can be used to predict important climatologic events.

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